Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of August 7, 2013. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am. Remember, you can listen online at KFYO.com or on your iPhone/Android with the radioPup App.

@texansfordan, Twitter
@texansfordan, Twitter
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1. Want to Live For a Long Time? (link)

New research is making it possible for American's to live well past the age of 100. However, that doesn't mean that everyone wants to.

But fifty-six percent of Americans say they would personally not want treatments that would allow them to live dramatically longer lives, said the Pew report, called “Living to 120 And Beyond.” Fifty-one percent believe such long lifespans would be bad for society, while 41 percent say they would be good.

Nearly 70 percent of Americans say they would ideally like to live to between 79 and 100. The median desired life-span, the report says, is 90 years – about 11 years longer than the actual current average U.S. life expectancy, which is 78.7 years. Just 9 percent of Americans say they want to live more than 100 years.

Debate has been bubbling up among bioethicists, religious figures and others about potential moral questions raised by the prospect of “radical life extension.” In 2010 Pope Benedict preached on the dangers of denying death its role.

“What would it really be like if we were to succeed, perhaps not in excluding death totally, but in postponing it indefinitely, in reaching an age of several hundred years? Would that be a good thing? Humanity would become extraordinarily old, there would be no more room for youth. Capacity for innovation would die, and endless life would be no paradise, if anything a condemnation,” he said.

Interestingly, the Pew poll shows people’s views on a seriously lengthened life don’t vary based on whether they believe in God or attend religious services. Perhaps the most striking difference in views is racial and ethnic.

Fifty-six percent of black Americans say radical life extension would be a good thing for society, compared with 36 percent of whites. African-Americans and Hispanics are also somewhat more inclined to say that they, personally, would want life-extending treatments.

“These findings are consistent with the survey’s findings that blacks are especially likely to express a desire to live 100 years or more. And both blacks and Hispanics tend to be more optimistic than whites about the future outlook for their personal lives,” Pew said in a statement Tuesday.

Of course people are already living longer than they once did, which affects everything from housing to employment. Pew cites the U.S. Census as saying that every six years the average U.S. life span rises by a year.

What about you? Would you want to take treatments that would extend your lifespan? Or when it's time... it's time?

2. Branch Defends Marriage in Texas (link)

State Rep. Dan Branch wants to fill the shoes of Greg Abbott. Today, he tried to position himself in just that fashion.

State Rep. Dan Branch, a candidate in the 2014 state attorney general's race, filed an amicus brief Tuesday with the state Supreme Court to defend a state law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The case in question — involving a couple who married in Massachusetts and later sought a divorce in Texas — also examines whether the attorney general is allowed to intercede. In a news release, Branch, R-Dallas, who declared his candidacy for that position last month, called it “the duty of the Texas Attorney General to defend the sovereignty and laws of Texas.”

But others have argued that the question of whether a same-sex couple can get a divorce is not relevant to constitutional definitions of marriage. The attorney general would only be allowed to intervene in a divorce case if there were a question of a law’s constitutionality, said Daniel Williams, a legislative specialist at Equality Texas, a gay rights advocacy group.

“This is about Dan Branch's political ambitions — not at all about good government,” Williams said.

In response to Williams' statement, Enrique Marquez, Branch's campaign manager, said that Branch "strongly believes it's the duty of the attorney general to defend the sovereignty and laws of Texas, and that's why he filed the brief today."

Is it all about politics for Dan Branch? Maybe not all, but it certainly helps in what will be a tough race for Attorney General.

3. Abortion Barbie (link)

Well Erick Erickson of RedState ticked off the Left yesterday when he sent out a tweet about Texas Senator Wendy Davis. In an interview with the Weekly Standard, Davis claimed that she didn't know anything about the Kermit Gosnell case.

“After (implausibly) claiming not to know basic facts about the Gosnell murders, Davis then said she did know one particular detail: ‘I do know that it happened in an ambulatory surgical center. And in Texas changing our clinics to that standard obviously isn’t going to make a difference,’” McCormack wrote.

He asserted that two patients who died at the Gosnell clinic might be alive if it had been regulated as an ambulatory surgical facility.

Erickson tweeted out a link to McCormack’s column, and then about an hour later he added: “It is a bit embarrassing that Abortion Barbie doesn’t even have her facts straight on Kermit Gosnell considering abortion is her issue.”

The faux outrage from the Liberals about Erickson's tweet was fantastic. And now we have another nickname for Wendy Davis. Abortion Barbie. Thanks Erick.

Other Top Stories:

These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.

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